The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-07-01
FOR THE WOMEN.
A eop-olvEN PRIVILEGE.

A coD-olvEN PRIVILEGE.
4 Glspes 1t Womsn's Advantages and Her
Opportunities ut Home aad Abroad
Human conception can not fathom
the amount Of brain power which lies
dormant about us. the waiting ability
which the masses Of time cover while
It awaits the sunshine Of opportunity.
Men have better chance 10 develop
in outer light than women. We admit
the freedom of our almost equal educa-
tional advantages. We have come up
rs a sex from the centuries of darkness
and thank you, our brothers. for ex.
tending helping hand. Yet. as some
of you would say. We are ''never sat-
isfied." This dissatisfaction is not
popularity of sex. Ambition is the
center Of strength around which the
human race rcvolves. COntentment
was never the nucleus Of power. We
must be up and doing while it is day.
for the night cometh wherein no man
can work.
Recently friend of mine just re-
turned from Europe. a talented pro-
fessor and author by the way. said. in
relating incidents of his travels: IF
some of our American women who are
clamoring for fulAr rights had seen
the sights l did in rural districts of
Germany and Switzerland they would
never open their mouths again. saw
Swiss peasant have his wife and
daughter hitched to pillow. while he
held the lines and drove them as vigor-
ously as we would able horses. l saw
women in Germany cutting fields of
grrin, and I'll tell you how they did it.
They stopped down and took little
wisp of the grain in their left hands
and whacket it off with sickle swung
in their right. Women in America
have better time than anybody in the
world; they have SO much done for
them they don't know what to ask.
1t may be true that we do not know
what to ask, therefore most of us have
no personal requests to prefer. Equal
room for development, and standing
ground. which we are able to occupy,
is I'LL that the boldest have required.
and from general standpoint one sex
is as near contentmcnt as the other.
The humdrum monOtOny of mechan-
ical physical action is facilitating to
any person of ordinary mental status if
there is no live energy behind it. no
expanse of thought beside it, and no
broader space to be reached beyond.
Whether we are men or women
there is great work for us to do. 1t
is true, men hold the balance of pow
er, but it is equally true. if women
would arouse from the stupor engen-
dcred by inactiOR. they would hold the
balance of influence.
We are arousing. brothers! Have
you heard the trump of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union? We are
willing to take the monotony of the
house or plOw if you choose; to he si-
lent when there is no need to speak;
but we are not willing to allow the cry
of the rising generation for purer air.
purer surroundings and purer mental
culture go unheard and unanswered,
while we have voices to swell the
chorus.
We are the mothers. the country's
arm Of dormant ability. We are dis
satisfied-not with our sex, not with
our political position. but with our
personal inaction during the growth Of
wrong. If men in their struggle for
maintenance and power failed to keep
the fOOt-way clean We feel We should
have left our parlors and kitchens and
swept the streets. purified the air,
drinks and speech Of the land. for
which we were training our children
before we turned them out.
The mutual inertia of centuries which
might have debilitsted the powers of
our progeny. was not our right Our
GOd-given privilege is to encourage
and promulgate purity.-Rrenological
Journal.